Six Days
by NightCat-HekaSu
Summary: Left behind after a job gone wrong, Jigen and Fujiko must work together to survive against thugs, starvation, and anything else six days of being lost in a rainforest can throw at them.
1. Day One

**Disclaimer: **Anything recognizable belongs to Monkey Punch.

Note: If you read this story a while back and noticed the lack of page breaks, I have since gone back and fixed this after my usual page breaks disappeared. The lines aren't pretty, but hopefully they won't disappear anytime soon.

* * *

_I'm going to kill them,_ Jigen thought. His trigger finger subconsciously twitched in agreement.

It had been about eight hours since they had arrived in this rainforest with an old and rotting map, six hours since the local crime lord and his gang had found them rummaging through an old tomb looking for ancient treasure, and five hours since Jigen had watched as Lupin and Goemon flew away in their tiny rental plane.

_Oh yes, I am going to kill them,_ he thought bitterly as he swatted at a mosquito buzzing around his head.

"Ugh," came a voice from behind him, "these bugs are driving me crazy!"

Jigen growled and swatted at the blood-suckers a bit more forcefully than was really necessary. He could hear Fujiko fighting her own battle with the insects behind him. If he hadn't been being eaten alive himself he would have taken the time to point and laugh at her. Childish as the action would have been, he was absolutely convinced that she deserved no less at this point.

"You know," he settled for saying, "if you hadn't sold us out we wouldn't be in this mess. You have no one to blame but yourself."

Jigen could almost hear her eyes harden behind his back. He ignored the urge to look behind him and instead took off his hat and wiped his forehead. The bugs didn't bother him as much as the killer humidity. He could feel his clothes sticking to him in uncomfortable ways, which just made his foul mood that much worse.

Fujiko wasn't helping matters much either. "You know damn well that if Lupin hadn't panicked and lifted off when he did-"

"What the hell were you expecting?" Jigen finally whirled around, a slightly crazed look in his eyes. "That we would just wait around calmly while LeCroix and his goons used us as target practice?"

Fujiko, to her credit, didn't waver an inch under Jigen's intense glare. "If he had LISTENED to me we would have been just fine and you know it!"

Jigen barked out a harsh laugh. "Does it take practice to be this delusional, or is this a natural talent of your's? The damned plan was simple: go in, get the gold, get out and live happily ever after. You were the one that had to go and make this difficult."

"And you can't see an opportunity when it's right underneath your overgrown nose!" Fujiko snapped back. "If we had pulled this off we would have made off with the gold AND an extra two million to show for it!"

Jigen could feel the beginnings of a stress headache starting to pound its way into his head. "Just when were you going to let us in on this little plan of your's? Before or after LeCroix gave us a few extra holes?" he spat back at her.

She didn't seem to have a comeback for that. On his mental scoreboard Jigen marked a point under his name.

"Come on," he muttered and turned back around. "It'll be dark soon, and I'd like to put as much distance as I can between us and the tomb. You still have the transmitter, yeah?"

"Of course," Fujiko said as they began their trek forward once again. "I'm not an idiot, you know."

"Coulda fooled me."

Jigen just barely ducked out of the way in time to miss the mud ball she threw at him.

* * *

By the time night time came Jigen was too worn out to fight with Fujiko anymore. The same seemed to hold true for her, which he was eternally grateful for. He didn't think his sanity could survive another standoff with the infernal woman.

"Damnit," he growled as Fujiko laid some branches down for a fire. "My cigarettes are ruined." He looked forlornly at the soggy package in his hand. "This day just keeps getting better and better."

"Nice to see that your priorities are straight," Fujiko mumbled. "Be a gentleman and help me with this fire, would you?"

Jigen pocketed his cigarettes with a sad sigh. The oncoming nicotine withdrawal would be killer, he just knew it.

"Geez," he said as he fished out his lighter. "Did you try to find the soggiest pieces of wood?"

"Hey, you try to find anything dry in this swamp," Fujiko snapped. She opened her arms and gestured around her for emphasis.

Jigen just grunted in response; it was better than admitting that she was right. Instead he flicked his lighter at the damp wood. After a few tries the flame seemed to catch for a couple of seconds to just die away again. He growled in frustrated as time after time the same result happened.

"Use the bark."

Jigen looked up at Fujiko. "Use the what?"

"Bark," she jabbed at one of the drier pieces of wood with her foot. "Don't tell me that you don't know any basic survival skills."

"You generally don't need to know any of this wilderness crap in cities," he defended himself. It was true, though. His years as a mobster didn't exactly require an outdoorsman course. Regardless, he tried her suggestion. When the bark lit within the next two tries he couldn't help but feel a little grateful to Fujiko, as much as he didn't want to.

"Know any other useful tips?" he asked as he tried to warm himself. The suffocating heat of the day had given way to the freezing temperatures of night. As ill-dressed as he was for the daytime temperatures, he was suddenly grateful that he didn't take Lupin's advice and dress in shorts and a t-shirt. At least the suit would keep him a little warmer.

Fujiko shrugged and scooted as close as she could to the slowly growing fire. "Just some basics and what I read in that survival manual I found in the plane. Too bad I didn't keep it on me."

Jigen grunted in agreement. "Well, we'll need every advantage we can get until Lupin and Goemon can get a fix on that transmitter."

Fujiko nodded and hugged herself. Silence descended upon the two, amplifying the sounds of night time creatures scuttling about all around them unseen. It didn't bother Jigen one bit; worse comes to worse, he could just blow away anything that tried to eat them.

A strange chattering sound found its way to his ears after a long period of silence. It took Jigen a couple of minutes of careful listening to figure out exactly what it was. He looked over the rapidly dying fire to see Fujiko trying hard to fight against the shivers, but her chattering teeth and bare legs and arms told another story.

Jigen sighed. As tempting as it was to let her suffer the cold, he couldn't find it in himself to hate her that much. He got to his feet and reluctantly draped his mostly dry jacket over her shivering form.

"Don't read too much into it," he said when she looked up at him in surprise. "Consider it a payment for your survival skills. I'm still royally pissed off at you."

"Well, thanks, I supposed," Fujiko warily said after a minute. She wrapped the jacket tighter around herself. Jigen felt a pang of regret at the loss of his jacket, but he let his nicer side win just this one time.

"Think nothing of it," Jigen said as he found a dry piece of ground. "Just try to get some sleep. I have a feeling that we'll need all the rest we can get."

If she said anything more, Jigen didn't hear it. The more paranoid part of him wanted to stay awake to make sure that she didn't run off and betray him again. The greater part of him, though, somehow just knew that she wouldn't try it tonight, so he allowed himself to give into the sleep he so desperately needed.


	2. Day Two

The first thing Fujiko was aware of when she woke the next morning was a distinct, but not wholly unpleasant, smell. The second thing that she became aware of was the intense rumbling her stomach produced at the smoky scent.

"About time you woke up," she heard Jigen greet her.

"Good morning to you too," Fujiko mumbled as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Through the thick canopy above her she could see the pale pink morning sky peeking through some tiny gaps. "What time is it, anyway?"

"Does it matter?" Jigen shrugged. "It's breakfast time, and that's all you need to know for now."

Fujiko felt her stomach growl in agreement. Jigen's jacket slipped off of her shoulders and the cool morning air greeted her skin. In an instant she regretted not wearing something a bit more covering; shorts and a tank top just wasn't working in her favor. She hastily slipped Jigen's jacket back on.

"What's for breakfast?" Fujiko asked as she moved closer for warmth. In response Jigen carefully lifted the stick he was holding the food over the fire with.

"Hope you like fish." There was two halves of a skinned and gutted fish balanced precariously on the forked end of the stick. Behind him Fujiko saw another stick with a soggy shoelace tied to it. On the end of the shoelace was one of her hairpins, bent and sharpened to a point.

"Took me forever to catch the sucker, too," Jigen said. Fujiko thought that she could detect a hint of pride in his voice.

_I guess even Jigen isn't immune to stereotypical male accomplishments_, Fujiko thought smugly to herself. As Jigen cooked the fish Fujiko busied herself by fiddling with the transmitter.

"No sign of Lupin and Goemon yet," she said with a defeated sigh. "I wonder how long it will take them to find us."

"Who knows?" Jigen said with a shrug. "Maybe they already found our signal but got sidetracked by Pops or, worse yet, LeCroix. Here," he waved the end of the stick with the cooked meat near her face. "Eat up."

Fujiko gingerly picked the less burnt of the two halves off of the stick. She tried a wary nibble, found the taste to be agreeable, and proceeded to dine with intent.

Their breakfast passed in silence as the two took stock of their situation. Fujiko was torn between staying put where they were and waiting for rescue and putting more distance between themselves and the thugs out to get them. Both arguments had their pros and cons, which made the decision just that much more difficult.

_Damn Lupin_, she found herself thinking. _If only he had just listened to me…_

Her plan had been flawless. LeCroix's thugs were inexperienced enough that they only really knew how to point and shoot. Lupin and company could have easily allowed themselves to get caught and busted out with the treasure and LeCroix's fortune. She had committed the layout of LeCroix's camp to her mind when she had gone to strike a deal with the disgusting and cold man. No real guard towers, no amazingly hard defenses, and dumb as doornail grunt men. It would have been like stealing candy from a baby.

In retrospect, Fujiko admitted to herself that she probably should have clued the rest of the gang in on the plan. At the time the business side of her didn't want to risk Lupin saying no and losing out on all of that money without even trying. So she did things the best way she knew how; back him into a corner so that he had no choice but see things her way.

Of course, that was easy-to-forgive Lupin. Jigen, on the other hand…

"I suppose I owe you an apology," she found herself saying.

Fujiko couldn't find the will in herself to look at him, but she heard Jigen grunt in surprise and interest. She stared at her food as she continued.

"It wasn't anything personal, you know. Sometimes you just have to go for the bigger fish. If I knew that this would happen-"

"Fujiko," Jigen cut her off, but not harshly. "Just forget it for now. I don't particularly care about why you sold us out at the moment. Right now I just want to get back to civilization in one piece, and I'd rather have some help with that task than to go it alone. So let's just call a truce for now and get ourselves the hell outta here, alright?"

Fujiko finally lifted her head to meet his eyes. _It's the best I can ask for, for now_, she thought as she met his no-nonsense gaze.

"Yeah, sure."

* * *

"Yeech!"

Fujiko agreed with Jigen on that note. She could feel things crawling in the mud that they were currently stuck knee-deep in. She just hoped that they weren't of the man-eating variety.

Since morning the duo had been steadily making their way through a particularly swampy part of the rainforest. Fujiko had been trying her best to only focus on the task of getting through the muck, but she had been finding it hard to concentrate ever since Jigen had to practically pry her out of a tree when they encountered an exceptionally big and warty frog ("It's just a friggin' frog, Fujiko! Look, harmless!" "Get that disgusting thing away from me!").

While having her biggest phobia waved in front of her face made her paranoia increase ten-fold, it seemed to perk up the gunman, much to Fujiko's annoyance. She retaliated by keeping his jacket in her possession, though he didn't seem to be in any rush to take it back yet.

_Just wait until night time comes_, she thought bitterly. In the back of her mind she knew that this was by all means childish, but she was beyond caring at that point. If it kept the bugs off of her arms and put a dent in Daisuke Jigen's day, it was worth a little immaturity.

Unfortunately, that small bright light in her day was being dimmed by the state of her feet.

"Ah!" she yelled in surprise. She screwed her eyes shut and shuddered as she felt a slimy and small _something _slide through the mud and against her shin. "What in the world possessed you to take this route in the first place?"

"It was either this or that road crawling with LeCroix's men. Between that or swamp animals, I know which one I'd rather fend off."

He didn't say it, but Fujiko heard the second reason in his tone.

_So you don't run off and betray me._

The nerve of that man… her jaw tensed. What did he take her for, anyway? Sure, she had done some things that occasionally called her loyalty in question, but that was always in the name of business. She also knew when to focus on survival, and trying to make deals with LeCroix's trigger-happy thugs wouldn't be in her best interest.

_Of course_¸ she found herself idly thinking, _the man himself, on the other hand…_

Her thought process was cut short by a sudden inability to move her feet. She tried to move forward again. A sickening suction kept her foot stuck in place.

With a grunt of frustrated and slightly panicked exertion Fujiko tried to move her other foot.

_Shlik! Shlik!_

… _Crap._

Fujiko looked around frantically for a branch, rock, anything she could grab a hold of and pull herself out. To her horror she realized that there was only one thing in range that she had available to her.

Well, one person.

_Damnit. Today of all days to have him angry with me…_

"Um, Jigen?" Fujiko called out in her sweetest voice possible. "A little help?"

She watched with growing agitation as Jigen stopped, turned around, and allowed a smug grin to grow on his face.

She crossed her arms. "This isn't funny, Jigen!"

"I beg to differ. This is friggin' hilarious," Jigen said. His voice shook with barely held mirth.

"Oh, very mature," she growled. The mud seeping in between her toes squelched as if in agreement. "Just lend me an arm, will you?"

"I don't know," Jigen responded, "that bullfrog behind you is rather mean looking…"

"AIEE!" Before that day, Fujiko had no idea that she could jump that high. Her feet ripped painfully from her shoes, but she was free.

Fujiko looked around her in a panic, but found no sign of the offending creature. Behind her Jigen had finally let loose the laughter he was holding in.

"You're such a jerk!" Fujiko yelled at him. She could feel the blood rushing to her face, making her red with embarrassment.

"But you're free, aren't you?" Jigen countered. "I'm surprised that you didn't ditch the shoes earlier." To emphasize his point he lifted a foot to show his own bare and mud-covered feet.

Fujiko sighed. "Yeah, well, don't expect any thank yous for that stunt," she said while trying hard to ignore the bubble of tension-breaking laughter she also felt starting to grow in her throat.

* * *

"These berries taste a bit funny…"

"Then spit it out, you idiot!" Fujiko slapped Jigen's arm for emphasis. Jigen promptly spit out the offending berries. "Here, these ones are fine."

It was getting near dark as the two taste-tested the various berries they had picked up on their trek during the day. It had taken Jigen some convincing to try any of them, but Fujiko had been persistent that she remembered reading about how to tell which are poisonous in the plane's survival pamphlet.

Jigen sniffed the red berries Fujiko had given him. "You positive that we won't keel over and die from these ones?"

"Mostly," Fujiko answered honestly. "All I know is that I chewed on one and five minutes later there were no strange tastes or numbness. I think they're fine."

"Well, here goes nothing," he relented as he popped some in his mouth.

The two thieves chewed their bounty in silence for a while. Fujiko, for her part, was very grateful for finally being able to stop for the night. Her legs felt like they were about to fall off.

She was just about to suggest finding firewood for the night when Jigen's head shot up in alarm. Before Fujiko had time to even blink the gunman had her pinned flat on the forest floor with his hand firmly clasped against her mouth. When she protested he hissed a quiet "shut up" at her.

Fujiko couldn't resist a glare at Jigen, but did as she was told. After a minute she heard what had alarmed Jigen so much.

"LeCroix," Jigen growled.

The gang leader's eerily calm voice met Fujiko's ears. The guy had given her the creeps when she had first met him, and now she could still feel her skin crawl from the coldness in his voice. She could hear him berating his hired goon for not killing Lupin and not finding him faster.

Her initial fear of discovery was sidelined by another tempting thought. Sure, the first deal had gone south and she had admitted that it was a mistake, but then again LeCroix now has the money _and _the treasure…

She knew Jigen would never agree to it, and he would be pissed off when he found out, but he's still a thief like her. He'll understand that it was a business decision, especially when she gives him is cut when he finally agrees to the plan she was privately cooking up.


	3. Day Three

The next morning Jigen counted eight gun barrels pointed at his face upon wakening.

"… Damn Fujiko," was all he said before being knocked out.

* * *

Jigen was pissed.

Not just his normal 'Arg! Damnit all!' rage. Oh, what he'd give for just that kind of rage at that moment. No, this was a special kind of rage. This was the kind of rage that he reserved for only one specific person.

"Don't be mad at me, Jigen. It's just business."

Visibly he made no reply other than his jaw tightening even more. It was already so stiff that if he hadn't been so focused on being pissed off, he may have been close to tears.

A few feet away from him Fujiko sat comfortably on a chair that was provided by the overly eager guard. Sometimes Jigen was truly amazed at what Fujiko could get out of men when she flashed even a little skin or talked in just the right tone. Not that it ever worked on him, though he didn't mind reaping the benefits of the weakness of other slobbering fools.

"Besides," Fujiko kept going, "you won't be in here long. I just need a day or two to figure out where all the treasure and the money are being held, and then I need to find a way to get us out of here…"

Jigen gritted his teeth at the 'us' part of that sentence. He continued to glare down at the dirty ground, unable to push back the hair that fell into his eyes. Sometime between his first rude awakening and the second one in this crude prison tent his hat had been lost.

Yet another thing to blame on Fujiko, as far as he was concerned.

"So, what do you say?" she finally ended her optimistic ramble. "Do we do this as a team, or am I on my own?"

Jigen felt his eye twitch.

"I'll tell you what," Fujiko said. He heard her get up from her perch. "I'll give you a little while to think on it. In the mean time, I'm going to work on LeCroix and see what I can get out of him. The guy's a creep, but I think I can get the location of at least the treasure out of him."

Jigen said nothing as he heard the bane of his existence walk out of the tent. If his hands hadn't been tied behind his back Fujiko would have seen blood seeping out from where his nails had been digging into his palms.

"I hate that bitch," he hissed at no one in particular.

* * *

Jigen wasn't sure of how much time had passed before Fujiko made her next appearance. Guessing by what little natural light could get through the flimsy tent fabric and the fact that the air was gratefully getting cooler, he guessed that it was nearing the end of the day.

By then he had calmed down enough that he was capable of coherent thought again, but that didn't stop him from seeing red when Fujiko walked in.

"What do you want?" he snapped.

Fujiko didn't seem phased. "Just bring you some dinner." She held up a plate of what looked like leftover vegetables and a few scraps of meat.

Jigen eyed the food warily, but the intense growling in his stomach protested. "You probably slipped something in it."

"What do you take me for?" Fujiko said. To emphasize her point she took a bite of a carrot. "See? Harmless."

Jigen grunted in acceptance, but nonetheless kept a wary eye on her as she pulled up a chair beside his and started feeding him.

"This is horribly degrading," he muttered between mouthfuls of lettuce. "Being spoon fed by you."

"Be grateful you're even getting anything to eat," she said. "LeCroix wanted to let you starve tonight. I managed to convince him that you wouldn't make a very good hostage if you're too sick to be of any use."

"Hostage?" Jigen asked around a mouthful of food. A few flecks managed to fly out of his mouth and onto Fujiko's face.

Fujiko looked a bit disgusted, but said nothing of it as she wiped away the offending spittle. "Yeah, look," her voice became very low, "they're planning to use you as ransom to get to Lupin. Apparently that map he has doesn't only lead to that tomb, but also to an even bigger fortune!"

"Wait," Jigen looked perplexed. "We both saw that map. There wasn't anything else on it!"

"That's what I said, but apparently there's a bit of a myth surrounding the thing. There's a bit of a trick to making the second location show. Something about it only being revealed 'to the worthy'. LeCroix seems to think that you need to expose it to something in the tomb, sort of like magic ink."

Jigen could have sworn that he saw dollar signs light up in Fujiko's eyes. Not that he was surprised; when she started to talk heatedly about a big heist she would always get like this. If it wasn't for her methods he would have found it admirable.

"So you sell me out for the money and treasure, then when a bigger treasure presents itself you suddenly need my help. Somehow I don't think you've thought your cunning plan all the way through."

Fujiko's eyes hardened. "I wasn't going to let you rot in here, Jigen. I knew that you never would have gone along with my plan in the first place. I had no choice."

Jigen growled. "You know, normal people would just ASK before doing something like this. What makes you think that I didn't want the cash and treasure as much as you?"

"Because, when it comes to heists, you think with your gun and not with your brain. This job requires craftiness, not threats. It just so happens that is my specialty." Her intense whisper had almost evolved into a shriek.

Jigen felt his previous anger rumbling inside of him again. Behind him his still bound hands started to itch and flex. "You think I don't realize that you're a manipulative bitch? I'm not blind, Fujiko."

"No, but you don't trust me." She pointed the fork at him for emphasis. "That's why you would have never gone along with this plan."

Jigen fell silent under Fujiko's glare. He could vaguely hear guards walking around just outside of the tent, and he was sure that Fujiko heard it too. He wished that they would just go away so that they could keep talking and not give him a few minutes to actually think about what Fujiko just said.

He just may end up admitting that she was right.

"Do you blame me?" Jigen whispered when the footsteps faded away. "How many times have you betrayed us, Fujiko? You've almost gotten us killed more times than I can count, and on top of that I'm a few million dollars poorer because of you. Forgive me if I'm not so quick to trust you."

"Well sorry for being better at business than you," Fujiko hissed. "So are you in or are you not?"

Jigen just kept a hard stare at her. Internally his mind was busy at work and torn between two bad choices. Work with Fujiko and possibly get betrayed again, or not work with her and be at the mercy of LeCroix and his goons.

"You're wrong, you know," he settled for saying.

Fujiko blinked at him. Apparently she wasn't expecting that. "Wrong about what?"

"I would have gone along with the plan if you had just asked about it," Jigen admitted. "You just don't have enough foresight to realize that manipulation won't get you any favours from me."

"Are you so sure about that, Jigen?" Fujiko countered as she got up from her chair. "You say that, but sometimes I think you don't know yourself as well as you think you do."

Jigen allowed a humourless bark of laughter out. "Maybe, maybe not. Guess we'll never know now, huh?"

Fujiko shrugged. "Guess not." She set her chair back and started to leave, but stopped just short of the door. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry for putting you through this, Jigen."

Jigen didn't quite believe her, but settled to not say anything about it. "Thanks for supper," he muttered.

"My pleasure," Fujiko said before walking out of the tent.


	4. Day Four

In the early morning hours of the fourth day Fujiko found herself back in Jigen's prison tent doing the most degrading thing she could think of.

She was _begging_ Daisuke Jigen to help her.

"You don't understand, Jigen!" she pleaded to the bound gunman. "If they go through with this then we're both dead!"

"Yeah, karma's a bitch, ain't it?" Fujiko was sure that he was taking some sadistic pleasure in her predicament.

In hindsight, she admitted that she should have seen this roadblock coming. About twenty minutes earlier she had overheard LeCroix telling some of his men his real plan for getting to Lupin. She didn't hear much, but she heard enough to know that both she and Jigen needed to get away as soon as possible.

If only she could get Jigen to see things her way.

"Look, I fucked up, I'll admit that," Fujiko furiously whispered. Outside her sharp ears picked up the faint sounds of the camp coming to life for the day. "You can chew me out for this whole situation later. Right now, we have to get going."

"What about your precious treasure?" Jigen taunted. He was significantly less careful with the volume of his voice, making Fujiko cringe in panic.

"We can deal with that once we're back with Lupin," she said. "And we can't do that if we're dead!"

"And I supposed you have some brilliant plan to get us out of here, right?"

"Yes, it involves leaving this place before everyone in the damn camp wakes up!"

"And what good will that do us?" Jigen calmly said. "We still have no freakin' clue where we are in relation to anything. So if we leave now we'll just be wandering around blind again."

"I still have the transmitter," Fujiko shot back. "And did you not hear me when I said that they're planning to kill us?"

"And you seriously didn't see that coming?" Jigen said with a glare. "Really Fujiko, you may be a bitch but you're not stupid. I can't believe that you didn't consider that they would be planning to kill you too. Or maybe you just didn't take into account that, while killing Lupin's best friend may get him into a frothing rage, killing his girlfriend as well would be what puts him on a mission of revenge. It doesn't take a genius to think up that trap, especially considering just how much a sadistic bastard like LeCroix likes manipulating people into traps like that. Forgive me if I don't feel like helping you fuck yourself over any further, Fujiko."

In the tense silence that followed Fujiko kept her glaring eyes locked with Jigen's own, but internally she was a wreck. She hated Jigen for being so spiteful, so childish, and for just being so damn difficult to reason with.

Most of all, she hated him for hitting the target bang on during his little rant. She knew that she was blinded by the promise of riches and that she had been overly confident. She also knew damn well that she's paying for her moment of weakness now.

But she'll be damned if she told Jigen any of that.

Through the cracks in between the ground and the tent Fujiko could see the morning sunlight start to get brighter. Her time with Jigen was almost up, and all she had to show for it was a headache and a bubble of frustration and fear aching to burst in the pit of her stomach.

_Well_, she thought, _time to pull out the big guns._

Fujiko sighed in defeat. "There's just no reasoning with you, is there?" When Jigen didn't respond she kept going. "In that case I'll leave you this to think about, Jigen. We both know damn well that you could have broken out of here anytime you wanted. I know for a fact that they didn't find that little blade up your right sleeve."

Fujiko saw Jigen's cheek twitch.

"You may act all tough, but deep down you know that you wouldn't leave without me. You may not like me, but you don't hate me enough to leave me to my death. Even if that's not the case, you know damn well that Lupin would never forgive you if I was left behind."

A heavy silence followed after that statement. Off in the distance Fujiko could hear the camp leaders yelling for people to get up and start packing. Taking that as her cue to leave, she started to go for the back of the tent where she had lifted a loose corner to get inside earlier.

"It's true for you too, you know."

Fujiko stopped at Jigen's words. They were spoken softly, but hearing them made her feel like she had just walked into a brick wall.

Jigen kept going. "You can sneak off at anytime, but yet here you are. I know you, Fujiko. This isn't just about the treasure now. You could be off and do that all yourself. Guess I should feel flattered by that."

Fujiko recovered from her initial shock to give Jigen one last half-hearted glare before leaving the tent.

* * *

For four hours after her conversation with Jigen Fujiko had been internally formulating plan after plan for escaping the gang as soon as possible. She knew that she would have to make her move before nightfall. She also knew that, no matter how much she wanted to, she wasn't going to leave Jigen behind to fend for himself. Just as Lupin would never forgive Jigen for leaving her to her death, she was sure that Lupin would never find it in his heart to forgive her for leaving his best friend behind.

Never mind the voice in the back of her mind saying that Jigen was also a dear friend to her too. A frustrating and downright spiteful one, but a friend nonetheless.

Fujiko knew that she wasn't the best of people. Hell, just her profession made her a member of bad society. She knew that she had a tendency to place business over any friendships or relationships. That's how you survive in the criminal world, after all. She had seen too many prominent thieves, mobsters, and scam artists brought down by the small group of people that they would never dream of cheating or betraying. After so many years of seeing the same pattern play out so many times, she had developed the habit of always having a secret back up plan, never revealing too much to your supposed partners, and never allowing anyone get too close. For many years this had worked out well for her. She lived for herself and looked out for number one at all times.

Then Lupin came along and suddenly the very foundations of her personal philosophy had been shaken. As much as she had tried to deny it at first, all of the members of Lupin's strange gang grew on her over the years until a soft spot had been pounded into her formerly closed-off heart. Lupin, the man that she loved but wouldn't allow herself to indulge in said love just yet. Quiet Goemon, whom she personally considered her closest friend out of all of them. Jigen, for all of the times they disagreed with each other, still was like a big brotherly presence to her. Even Zenigata was decent company when he wasn't running around screaming Lupin's name at the top of his lungs.

In all of them she had found the sort of messed-up relationship that only people like them could maintain. As much as they looked out for each other, there was still an unspoken agreement that it would still be every man for himself at times. They trust each other to not get the rest into any trouble that's too dangerous for any of them to handle, even though Fujiko walked that thin line a lot.

These thoughts nagged at Fujiko while she watched the lush rainforest scenery pass by the window of the jeep she was riding in. The clock was ticking down fast, and she still couldn't think of a plan that could potentially get both her and Jigen to safety by the end of the day.

If it wouldn't have called attention to herself, Fujiko would have been banging her head on the dashboard in frustration. The large and intimidating LeCroix and his right hand man sat behind her in tense silence.

_Eight more hours,_ Fujiko thought. _I have to get to Jigen. I have to think of some brilliant plan and get us out of here._

From the corner of her eye she saw one of the trucks filled with the paid grunts pass the jeep. The vehicle was practically bursting at the seams with burly men with very deadly guns and knives.

_Good luck with that, honey._

* * *

Seven hours later Fujiko had her brilliant plan all ready to go.

Unfortunately for her, Jigen played out his plan first.

"YOU'RE INSANE!" Fujiko screamed at him over the sound of gunfire.

"Damn straight," Jigen calmly said. He popped up from behind the truck for a split second to fire a couple of shots at their opposition.

Fujiko rolled her eyes, but followed Jigen's lead and took aim at a couple of the thugs as well.

She had it all perfectly planned out. A few well placed flirts and pistol whips to some thugs, she and Jigen would have been free. It was elegant in its simplicity, and with any luck it would have been a good hour or so before anyone realized that they were gone. All she had to do was wait until they were transporting Jigen to his new prison tent and hope that Jigen would go along with it.

Of course, what she didn't put into consideration was that Jigen often has his own way of dealing with things.

"You're just doing this to piss me off, aren't you?" Fujiko asked as she ducked back behind the truck.

"No, but it's a good side effect," Jigen said. Fujiko could have sworn that she saw a flash of a grin. "But worry about that later, let's just get our asses out of here."

Fujiko couldn't help but agree with that. In the brief silence of the thugs reloading their guns Jigen and Fujiko made a mad dash for the tree line and freedom.

Fujiko tried her best to keep Jigen in her line of sight, but the branches and the rough terrain made it tough. A bullet flew past her head, causing her to up her pace. Ahead of her Jigen was rapidly falling out of sight.

Her foot suddenly banged into a raise tree root. Fujiko cried out to Jigen as she fell to the ground, unable to stop herself. With a hard thud her head banged against the rainforest floor and left her dazed for a moment. She was barely aware of the bullets flying over her in the moment where she couldn't tell which way was up. She blinked furiously and tried to force her eyes and mind to focus.

"Fujiko!"

A hand suddenly gripped a chunk of her hair and began to pull her roughly back up. Then, as quickly as it came, it was gone again. Fujiko stumbled forward, but managed to stay on her feet. She looked behind her and saw Jigen wrestling with one of LeCroix's thugs.

"Go!" Jigen yelled at her. "I'll catch up!"

She didn't need to be told twice. Fujiko dashed off into the forest, but kept an ear out for Jigen's approach.

"Come on, Jigen," she whispered after another minutes of hearing nothing.

Another couple of minutes and she was still running. Behind her, there was still an eerie silence. A cold feeling washed over her when she realized that Jigen definitely wasn't following her.

Fujiko flirted with the idea of leaving Jigen behind and saving herself. The business side of her screamed to just keep running and that it just meant more loot for her.

However, the other side of her whispered that Jigen deserved better than that. Besides, she knew damn well that she wouldn't be able to live with herself if something happened to Jigen now. Not after he had saved her life.

_Damn him_, she thought bitterly, but stopped running all the same. In a flash she dropped to the ground and listened carefully.

Off in the distance she heard the sounds of a struggle. _Just don't do anything stupid, Jigen_, she thought as she carefully and silently made her way back towards the camp.

On her way she saw a few of LeCroix's men walking through the forest, obviously looking for her. Fujiko stayed to the shadows and made no sudden movements. Outwardly she was the very picture of focused and calm, inwardly her heart was beating so loudly and frantically she was almost worried that they could hear it.

She finally made it back to the edge of the tree line. Through the branches of her hiding place she could clearly see Jigen being held by a couple of LeCroix's thugs. Standing in front of him was LeCoix himself. The large man seemed to be interrogating Jigen, though Fujiko couldn't make out any of the words that were said.

She looked around frantically. All Jigen needed was for them to be distracted for a split second, but how the hell was she going to give him that without giving away her position?

Meanwhile LeCroix started to choke Jigen by pulling on his tie. Fujiko cringed when she heard Jigen's strangled cry. She almost started to panic when she finally saw the answer.

_I knew his sadism would come in handy, _Fujiko smiled as she took careful aim at the hand LeCroix was using to pull on Jigen's tie, and pulled the trigger.

In the resulting confusion Fujiko acted on pure instinct. While LeCroix screamed in pain and cradled his bleeding hand, Fujiko quickly shot the two men that were holding Jigen. As Jigen wretched off his tie and ran for it, Fujiko provided cover fire to him.

From the corner of her eye she saw LeCroix pointing towards her hiding spot with his good hand. She took aim at him and pulled the trigger, but found that her clip was completely empty.

_Shit! _She thought. She hit the ground and heard a canopy of bullets fly over her. Splinters of wood and falling branches hit her back as she prayed that none of the bullets would find its way to her body.

A sudden explosion stopped the onslaught of bullets. She didn't see it, but she felt the ground shake from the force. Through all of the shouting and rumbling, she felt a hand roughly pull her up from the muddy ground. Her fist flew out at the mystery man, but he had her wrist in his firm grip in a flash.

"Come on," Jigen said. Fujiko immediately stopped any further attempts to escape him. "They won't be distracted by those trucks I set fire to for long."

"No argument here," she said before they ran off into the dark rainforest, leaving the burning camp behind them.


	5. Day Five

"You're a back-stabbing, conniving, and downright petty bitch, but you do have a heart."

It was midday of the fifth day. Despite the fact that they had spent the better part of the night huddled close underneath a dirty and bug-ridden log while LeCroix's men were out searching for them, Jigen was in a surprisingly good mood. He was in such a good mood that he even felt like having some friendly chatter. The package of cigarettes that Fujiko had managed to swipe from one of the thugs as a peace offering to him certainly helped to sweeten the deal.

"And another thing," Jigen said between puffs, "and make damn sure that you savour this 'cause you probably won't hear this from me again, I have to admit that there are worse people to be stuck in the middle of a muggy rainforest than you."

"Hrmph," was all he heard in return.

Jigen kept walking ahead and resisted the urge to look back at Fujiko. He knew that she was in a positively black mood. Her master plan had gone belly-up on her, so it wasn't like he blamed her for being at least a little depressed. On the other hand, this seemed to be a bit overboard.

"Oh lighten up," he said while climbing over some rocks. "We'll still get the loot, and something tells me that LeCroix is in no rush to cross us yet again. Nice shot on his hand, by the way."

Silence met him from behind. Fujiko's moodiness was chipping away at his good mood, and all the words of praise seemed to be doing nothing.

Jigen knew what he had to do to turn the tide, but he had been hoping to avoid it.

_Damn,_ he thought as he looked around for a suitable place, _this is going to be awkward._

"Come on, let's sit for a while," he said. The fallen log he found was mossy and slimy, but it would have to do. He tried not to cringe as the moisture soaked through the bottom of his pants when he sat down.

"We really should keep going," Fujiko said. Jigen noted that she wouldn't meet his eyes.

"We've been walking for hours, Fujiko. I don't think a ten minute break is going to kill us." He patted the space beside him. He made sure to not pat too hard; he didn't want to let on just how wet the log was.

To his surprise, Fujiko seemed to decide that it wasn't worth the argument and sat down beside him. She left a sizable gap between them.

"This log is soaking," she said after a beat of silence.

Jigen shrugged. "Good luck finding something dry in this mud hole." He slipped another cigarette from the crumpled package. He had a feeling that he was going to need it. After a moment of thought he held out the pack to Fujiko as well.

She looked at the offering and seemed to struggle with the decision. "Thanks," she finally said, taking one from the pack.

"Don't mention it." He held out the lighter for her before lighting his own.

Jigen took a few puffs as he thought about how he was supposed to approach this. Personal talk like this wasn't something he was accustomed to, nor was it something he particularly enjoyed. He knew, though, at times it was unavoidable.

"So," he finally said, "what's eating at you?"

To his surprise, Fujiko didn't seem to be shocked at the question. He did note that the scowl on her face deepened.

"Why do you care?" she asked.

Jigen shrugged. "I need to know that my partner isn't distracted by anything other than the job at hand."

Fujiko's scowl softened. Jigen gave himself another point on his mental scoreboard. He knew that the business angle would get through to her.

"And," he went on, "as your friend, I want to know when something is bothering you. So out with it."

Fujiko slumped. Jigen stayed silent and waited. Whatever was bothering Fujiko, he had a feeling that he needed to brace himself. Her reluctance was putting him on edge; Fujiko wasn't reluctant often.

"When you were tied up in LeCroix's camp, did it ever cross your mind to leave me behind?" she finally asked.

Jigen blinked. He wasn't expecting that question. "Honestly? Right at the beginning I wanted nothing more. Then, though I didn't want to admit it, I started to see the method to your madness, and bought into it. I waited it out to see just what the hell you were thinking, then made my decision from there."

Fujiko finally turned to look at him. "That's it?"

Jigen thought about it for a second. "On the more sappy side you've never gotten us into any situation we couldn't handle, so I wouldn't leave you to your death."

"And after all of that, after all of the shit I've put you through, you still consider me a friend?"

"We're messed up people to begin with," Jigen said with a shrug. "It's not much of a stretch to assume that we'll have a messed up friendship to show for it. Like I said, you're a back-stabbing bitch, but you do have a heart in there."

Fujiko chuckled. "And you're a crazy, violent, chain-smoking mobster who drives me nuts at times, but you're not too bad in a pinch. Are we even now?"

"Was that what your pissiness was about? You were worried that I didn't like you?" Jigen asked with a raised eyebrow. "You don't strike me as the type to worry about something like that, Fujiko."

"I'm not," she said as she stubbed out the last of her cigarette. "It's just… do you think that this was all worth it? I mean, we didn't get the treasure, not to mention being stuck with each other for the last five days, and now we have LeCroix's men even closer on our tails. And," she hesitated, "it's all my damn fault."

Jigen saw her shoulders slump again. That awkward feeling came back in full force, much to his displeasure. The tactful way didn't work, so it was time to be blunt. Swatting a few pesky mosquitoes away, he turned so that he was looking at her more straight-on.

"Listen," he said with as much conviction as he could muster, "I won't deny that it's your fault we're even in this mess, and I'll be damn sure to remind you of these last few days the next time you try to pull something like this. It's not like you to wallow in self-pity, Fujiko, so I'll chalk that up to exhaustion and frustration. You want to make it up to us? Then don't pull anymore surprises. Does that sound fair deal?"

"You trust me enough to not betray you again?"

"Not for a second," Jigen said with no hesitation. "I'll be watching you like a hawk until this whole damn mess is straightened out and we're on our way out of the country with the loot. I don't hate you, but that doesn't mean that I trust you when it comes to treasure."

In the beat of silence that followed Jigen thought that maybe his blunt approach didn't work either. In that case he was prepared to sling her over his shoulder and trek on and let Lupin deal with it when they got back.

The next second his vision was filled with a mane of dirty and thick hair and he felt himself being practically choked by the arms slung around his neck. Fujiko didn't seem to notice, nor hear Jigen's strangled protests over her own words.

"Thank you, Jigen," she said into his neck. "Thank you for not leaving me alone out here and for being a general pain in the ass. It just needed to know that nothing had changed between us, is all."

"That's it?" he squeaked out. "Why the hell did that bother you so much?"

"I have something good with you guys, and I don't want that to change. I was afraid that after all we've been through over the last few days something might have changed between us." She buried her face further into the junction between his neck and shoulder.

Jigen tried vainly to pry her arms away. "Damnit woman," he said, "get the hell off of me! Damn you're infuriating!"

"Thank you!" Fujiko gushed. "And don't you forget it!" She planted a quick kiss on his cheek before finally releasing her grip.

Jigen took in a few deep gasps. His throat was sore enough from being strangled the night before, now it felt like it was on fire. "So wait," a horrifying thought struck him, "did you think I was falling in love with you?"

Fujiko shrugged, but there was a grin plastered to her face. "It had crossed my mind."

"Out of all of the egotistical things…"

"Oh calm down, Jigen," Fujiko said in an annoyingly cheery tone, "I was more worried that you were going to leave me behind the first chance you got or, on the other extreme, think that we're pals and that all is good between us. I'm just looking out for the both of us here."

"So the next time you betray us you won't feel as bad?"

Fujiko just winked at him and got up from her seat. Jigen couldn't suppress a roll of the eyes as he too got up. The humid air, in combination with the cigarette smoke was almost suffocating, but he didn't care. He lit another one for the road.

"We should set up camp soon," Fujiko said. She strode ahead of Jigen while he lit his new cigarette. "It's going to start to get cold soon. Speaking of which, I kind of forgot your jacket back at LeCroix's camp, so if you'd be a gentleman…"

"Don't push it," Jigen growled.

"Alright then," Fujiko said in her most innocent tone. Jigen was immediately put on guard. "I guess we'll just have to use our body heat to keep warm tonight…"

Jigen just stared after her as she walked off. Subconsciously his trigger finger twitched.

* * *

Later that night Jigen found himself shivering underneath some tree boughs he had vainly tried to fashion into some form of blanket. A little ways away from him Fujiko lightly snored in her sleep, wrapped comfortably in his shirt.

"Damn Fujiko," he growled into the cold night air.


	6. Day Six

_A/N: Here we are! Finally, the last chapter of the fic that has survived a stepped-on laptop and two hard drive failures! Thanks to everyone who has read and/or reviewed! If you're looking for more of the same premise, I'd recommend "Certifiable" for a vastly different take._

_Thanks again for reading!_

* * *

"Well, I'll be damned."

Fujiko grinned her most triumphant grin. "See? Didn't I tell you that all we had to do was follow the road? That should teach you to doubt me."

"Hmph," was all Jigen said, but Fujiko could see him smile.

She had to admit, though she wouldn't to Jigen, that it had been a gamble and that she really hadn't known that following the dirt road through the rainforest would have lead them right back to the cave, but she had had an epiphany that morning.

When LeCroix's men had ambushed them at the tomb six days earlier, they had jeeps and other vehicles. Fujiko, Jigen, Lupin, and Goemon had landed the plane a ways away and hiked to the tomb, assuming that there was no road to the tomb. Of course, at that time, there wasn't. Six days later, after a wild guess on which way the tomb was, Fujiko and Jigen had found the newly beaten path to the trove of riches.

Fujiko supposed that, if she ever saw LeCroix again, she should thank him for always overdoing it on the hardware. The jeep tracks to the tomb had stuck out like a sore thumb in the otherwise untouched rainforest.

When she had voiced this idea to Jigen, the gunman had been sceptical that it would work. They didn't know how far they were from the tomb anyway, and what if the road lead them straight back to LeCroix's men? Fujiko argued that they were wandering around aimlessly as it was, so they might as well try to get somewhere. Then she said the lie that had clenched the deal:

"Besides, I know which way on the road to go."

She wasn't sure if Jigen had fully believed it, but it seemed to be enough for him to give in and to follow the road once they had found it again. She had given him some further crap about seeing a map and being able to tell which way was north by the position of the sun. By the end she even almost had herself believing the stuff she was claiming.

"Lucky me," she presently sighed in relief under her breath.

"So, now what?" Jigen asked as he sat down by the entrance. He lit another cigarette and held out the package to Fujiko.

She shook her head at the offering. "Now I suppose we wait for Lupin to pick up the transmitter signal."

Jigen rolled his eyes. "And if LeCroix and his goons get here first?"

"Naturally, we kick their asses again. Really Jigen, you have to think positive."

Jigen gave a dismissive noise around his cigarette. "Paranoia has served me well so far, why should I change my tune now?"

"Because you're working with me," Fujiko said with confidence. "And we make a damn good team." A thought suddenly struck her. "You know, since we were the ones who found out about that other stash of treasure and we went through six days of hell for this, don't you think that we should get a bigger cu-"

"Don't push your luck," Jigen growled. "Unlike you, I still have some morals."

Fujiko sighed. It just wasn't worth the fight. "Alright then."

As she went off to find some source of food, Fujiko could have sworn that she saw a hint of a smile on Jigen's face.

* * *

"What was that?" Jigen sat up in alarm.

"What was what?" Fujiko asked through a yawn. The sun had set a few hours earlier and the humidity of the day had given away to the chilling air of the night. Fujiko had been on the verge of sleep after making herself comfy in Jigen's shirt again.

Jigen hastily shushed her and indicated that she should listen carefully. Fujiko's hand went for the gun she had swiped from one of LeCroix's guards as she did what she was told.

At first all she heard was the sound of crickets and the rustling of leaves in the wind. Then she heard it; the distinctive sound of footsteps through the forest. What made her even more on edge was the fact that the footsteps were hard to hear. That meant that, whoever it was, they didn't want to be heard.

"Hide," Jigen mouthed to her. She didn't need to be told twice. As quietly as she could she slipped behind a thick tree while the gunman crouched behind a pile of rocks.

Fujiko stood as still as a statue. Her ears were on high alert. She consciously slowed her breathing as much as she could, short of stopping it all together. The seconds that ticked by felt like hours to her, but here and there she heard another snapping of a twig that wouldn't have been heard by someone less skilled than her.

There was a crunch of rocks underfoot that sounded incredibly close. Fujiko froze and even stopped breathing entirely. A long stretch of silence followed. During that time all Fujiko was conscious of was her pounding heart and the gun in her hands.

There was a loud yell, the distinctive sound of a blade unsheathing and rapidly slicing, then…

"Goemon! What the hell, man?"

Her heart leaped into her throat. Fujiko sprang from her hiding spot, her gun forgotten on the ground. In front of her was Jigen standing in a pile of dust that was his hiding spot and, what Fujiko considered at that moment, the most wonderful sight in the world.

"GOEMON!" Fujiko launched herself at the samurai. The normally stoic man seemed to be taken aback at the show of affection, but Fujiko was too relieved to care as she hugged Goemon with all of her strength and peppered his cheek with kisses.

"Hey, save some for me, Fujicakes!"

Fujiko never thought that she'd be as glad as she was to hear Lupin's voice again. With an enthusiastic cry she disengaged herself from Goemon's neck and latched on to the smiling Lupin's. She thought that she could vaguely hear Goemon gasping for air, but that was the last thing on her mind as she took in the scent of Lupin's expensive cologne.

"What the hell took you so long, man?" Jigen asked, though there was no malice in his voice. "It couldn't have taken you that long to pinpoint on the transmitter."

"What are you talking about?" Lupin asked. Fujiko let go of his neck and looked at him with confusion. "That thing stopped working about three days ago. We were worried that LeCroix's goon had gotten to you first."

"WHAT?" Fujiko and Jigen shouted. Fujiko hastily fished the small transmitter out of her pocket. Indeed, the flashing light was no longer working.

"You didn't think to check it?" Jigen glared daggers at her.

Fujiko suddenly felt a wave of defensiveness come over her. "Hey, you didn't think to check it either, so don't you dare blame this on me alone!"

"You were the one carrying the damn thing!" Jigen shot back.

"You-"

"As entertaining as this is," Goemon cut in, "we should leave this place as soon as possible."

"Yeah, and get Jigen some clothes." Lupin giggled. "What the hell happened, anyway?"

"Long story," Jigen grumbled, "we'll fill you in on that later."

"You'd better make good on that promise," Lupin said. "I'd like to know how the hell you two managed to not kill each other while we were gone."

Fujiko crossed her arms. "We're not children, Lupin. Besides, we can't leave just yet."

Lupin looked at her with wide and unbelieving eyes. "What are you talking about, Fujiko?" Lupin asked with his arms spread wide, indicating the damp rainforest surroundings. "Don't you want to curl up in a nice and warm bed, possibly with an equally nice and warm body next to you?"

Fujiko didn't say it or show it outwardly, but she felt her heart warm at the familiar playful grin on Lupin's face. The prospect of a warm bed with real blankets and pillows was inviting; just the thought made her realize just how worn out she really was. Not to mention, she never wanted to see another rainforest again for as long as she lived.

But, of course, business must come first.

Then again, she thought with a sudden gave of guilt, she knew that Jigen was also extremely worn out and, not to mention, cold. As much as Fujiko wanted to get straight to the treasure before things were complicated by LeCroix and his men showing up again, she felt that she owed it to Jigen to allow for some rest first.

She opened her mouth to give in to the offer of rest, but Jigen spoke up first.

"Trust me, Lupin," Jigen said, "you'll like this."

Fujiko whipped around to stare at Jigen, her mouth gaping open in amazement. The gunman just looked evenly at her and jerked his head towards Lupin and Goemon.

"Why don't you tell them about the map? We didn't go through hell and back to stop now."

It was hard to tell in the dim light, but Fujiko could have sworn that Jigen gave her the slightest and most discrete of winks. Once the shock left her, she gave Jigen the smallest of grins in return.

_He really does amaze me sometimes, _she thought. As she look at Lupin and Goemon's twin expressions of confusion and curiosity Fujiko felt a wave of affection come over her for all three of them. Especially for that pain in the ass gunman.


End file.
